Auf Die Hand, Fine Fastfood, Mitte

Auf die hand is my local. Unexpectedly, it means I rarely eat there  because it’s so close to my house that it seems lazy not to go upstairs and make my own lunch.  On the other hand, its proximity comes in handy on occasions when I need to meet people for coffee and don’t know them well enough to invite them to the flat or on one of those exceedingly rare occasions when I am running out for an early appointment or best one yet, when I am going to the Zoo or any other such  destination where the food is bound to be inferior.I was underwhelmed by auf die hand when I first moved into the flat and everyone kept telling me it was there.  It just seemed like a gussied up Pret a Manger and there was no way I was going to miss the bane of the triangle sandwich chain or so I smugly thought…  Smugness it turns out, is closely related to Pride - one of the seven deadly sins.  (I don’t need a film starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman to know it’s bad form to indulge in these bad boys)  Now I often find myself hankering after a free range egg salad sandwich or a chunky humous salad wrap.  (Although I would still insist on the sandwich coming to something resembling room temperature)Like the Prets and Eats of the UK, auf die hand does soups, stews, cakes, cookies and a warm meal of the day which goes for around €6.50 (It bears noting that for €3 more, you can go around the corner to Traube and have the special of the day or for €4.50 you can descend into the subterranean world of Persian food at Sabzi- open for lunch only and then there is the newly opened Jones Food Store on Reinhardstrass which I’ve yet to try but looks promising).  The €6.50 hot lunch price tag garners a lot of disapproval from its benefactors who are sensitive to the unspoken lunch rule of nothing over €5 that persists in Berlin.  Despite this, they are heaving at lunch, throw a little sunshine into the mix - when auf die hand put out their candy coloured chairs - and the shelves are bare by 3.  Which is just as well since they shut at 6. Read more of this post

Abu Jbara, Humus Specialists, Amman

I like Michelin star restaurants, I do.  In a few cases, I even love them.  But you know what I like even better?  Places that specialize in one thing.

Al Jbara is a restaurant in Amman, Jordan that specializes in Humus.  They do Lebanese Humus, with whole chickpeas mixed in. Breakfast humus with chickpeas and bread folded through to keep you going the whole day. And my favorite, Jordanian humus with just a few chickpeas strewn on top and a magic sauce.  As far as I can tell, the magic sauce consists of grated spicy green peppers in lemon juice with a little bit of garlic and salt.  One teaspoonful transforms the smooth silky humus from just “Wow! This is good!” To “Holy chickpeas batman, this humus is rocking my world!”

Read more of this post

Tacos Berlin, Food Truck

Sylee from Berlinreified tweeted about a Taco truck at the Neukölln Flohmarkt on the weekend. Down we went.  With zero expectations (for once).  By the time we made it out there it was after two in the afternoon, and most of the menu had been x’d out dramatically with some black tape.

Interesting.  Sold out had they? Read more of this post

Angry Chicken, Fried Chicken, Kreuzberg


There is a new addition to Kimchi Princess (which I wrote about here): Angry Chicken, Korean Fried Chicken.  No seats (at least not when we were there) just standing room for about 10 people at the concrete bar, facing the concrete wall, with a few wisps of  neon spray paint.  There is a lot of neon at Angry Chicken, so much that it resets my mind clock back to the 80′s and makes me wonder why I didn’t think to wear my neon leg warmers and high top Reeboks (you know the ones with 2 velcro fastenings at the ankle and shoelaces at the bottom)?  And maybe some terry cloth sweat bands, to keep my permed hair out of my eyes and an oversized sweater over my stretch stirrup pants.

Phew! That one kind of ran away on its own.

Paging Richard Simmons & Olivia Newton John…


Seriously though.

Your options are So So Angry Chicken (extra spicy), Angry Chicken (cinnamon sweet chilli), Sexy Chicken (soy garlic), Friendly Chicken (classic crunch), Furious Chicken (super spicy) with sizes of M = 6 pieces (€3.50), L = 9 pieces (€5.00), XL = 15 pieces (€8.50).  We tried the ones in red.  Furious Chicken will make steam come out of your ears and should be ordered with a side of fries to give your mouth a break.  So So Angry seemed to be just spicy enough, Angry chicken was mild. Read more of this post

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